The Lawless scholarship, funded by the Washington Judges Foundation, is awarded each year to the student who completed their first year as the top-ranked student. The Honorable Maryann Moreno (’83), Presiding Judge of the Spokane County Superior Court, presented Kardon with the award..

Kardong, originally from Spokane, received her Sociology degree from Boston College. She was drawn to Gonzaga because of the school’s location but also its commitment to social justice and its Jesuit underpinnings.

After receiving her undergraduate degree from a Jesuit university, she said, she wanted to “continue to foster my desire to work in service of others by attending a law school that epitomized the same values.”

Kardong says her law school experience has taught her “how far passion can take you … but when you are passionate about something, it is amazing how much you can achieve.”

Kardong has become very passionate about issues affecting seniors and hopes to someday work as an advocate for the elderly.

The Lawless scholarship is named after the late James. J. Lawless. Judge Lawless was a respected judge in Benton County, WA. In 1974 he was killed by a pipe bomb that had been sent to his chambers. Gonzaga has been awarding the Lawless scholarship to the top-ranked 1L student since 2002.